Thursday, June 24, 2010

red gown day



Tuesday night was Primo's 8th grade graduation ceremony. Him and a sea of identically red-gowned young teenagers: 144, to be exact.



He has been with these kids since we moved here just before he went to first grade. Such permanence is mind-blowing to me, as I was in four different school systems (in three different states and one different country) in the same span of time. It is a bittersweet time for him, because he will not be going onto the town high school with them but instead to a county magnet school for kids interested in science.



I cannot believe that I am old enough to have a kid ready for high school, but then I see pictures like the one below and I catch my breath at how grown-up and mature he looks... not to mention that at 5 feet 10 inches and growing, he towers over me.



I forget, all too often, that I need to treasure the last fleeting bits of his childhood because they are almost gone. The busy-ness and bustle of day-to-day life distract me from how quickly they are disappearing. His increasingly grown-up demeanor and conversation and abilities blind me to the fact that remnants of the child are still there, though, however faint.

But his younger brothers know. They are all too aware that he is growing up and away from them. He rarely comes outside to play with them anymore; as last week's pictures show, they are more often a gang of two these days. When he does forget himself for just a few minutes to join them, they are almost dizzy with joy and love.


My wish for this summer is to treasure these moments; to help me remember, and not to let him slip away too easily, even if some days it feels like he is almost gone.

4 comments:

  1. The time does fly by and looking at that one picture actually took my breath away a bit. As moms we know that this time goes so quickly, but in the eyes of most teenage boys it simply DRAGS by---waiting for high school...waiting for a drivers permit...waiting for a drivers license...waiting to be trust to actually DRIVE---ALONE!!! EEEK. You seem to be doing it all right when it comes to cherishing...not just being near your kids, but being with them, involved, caring enough to find the "better choice" for his schooling. That takes time and effort they may not see right away. But they'll remember it forever! You know, there is a company that will take your blog and print it up into a book! I hope you are backing your posts up---one day, your boys can have access to this and see how AWESOME their lives were/are. And they'll know all the little secret jokes that went along with the lambing, the shows, the planting, the parties, etc. Here's to a GREAT summer!

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  2. Were those red gowns really made of slippery, spot-resistant, no-wrinkle, glow-in-the-dark plastic? :-)

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  3. brushing a wee tear away... The little boy will always be there....you'll see. Ours boys are 28 and 30 and every so often...there it is!

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